concluded physician pay for performance calculations need to require p-values tighter than 95% confidence. would you tolerate a 10-20% fluctuation in your paycheck every year? also unimpressed by composite measures: they excuse an audience from taking the time to understand the science.

was snowed out of another nashville trip. back to the office to examine medicare beneficiaries' access to care over time instead.2/4

think that the onion will always be america's finest news source (1) (2).

had an appointment with a physical therapist re: wrist pain. she pulled out a protractor - my hands can stretch 25 degrees further than the average person's. i've been instructed to wear wrist braces forever and always. beginning to sympathize with lampshade dogs.

have been reading this blog written by an american roman catholic priest & orphanage director in southwestern haiti for a long time now; his current posts are worth paying attention to.

migrated to google voice. solves the problem of having both a home and work number.

reviewed some probability distribution computations. i've always liked probabilities, but haven't had much of a chance to use them at work (and therefore learn them cold). in jared diamond's book, he mentions, "with a very high probability of being correct, i can predict that, of the next 1,000 babies born ... not fewer than 480 or more than 520 will be boys." using the binomial probability formula, one can calculate the probability that exactly 480 out of the next 1,000 babies will be boys (0.01134), then calculate the probability that exactly 481 out of the next 1,000 will be boys (0.01226), and repeat this calculation up until 520 - summing all of the results. of course, r does this much faster -

#probability that less than 480 of the next 1,000 babies will be boysx #probability that more than 520 of the next 1,000 babies will be boysy #probability that between 480 and 520 of the next 1,000 babies will be boys1 - (x + y)

woke up in greek cyprus.flew to egypt. museumed. discovered four thousand year old cairo chimps with true-to-life genitalia.metroed to giza.rode a horse to the pyramids.watched the last sunset of the decade.expected as much.

walked by the nile.flew to amman, bused to the border, noted the jordanian prussian soldier gear.

flew to new york city. worked from my remote office for a few days.hope / resolve to travel while working remotely in the future. better to ease into a city, and stay connected to my career at the same time.

read a long way gone, a memoir written by a fellow graduate of oberlin who (nobody knew) had been a child soldier. worthwhile, but strangely edited: "this is your time to revenge the deaths of your families."

stopped reading karen armstrong's buddha halfway through. a mix of contextual history, religious philosophy, and physiological explanations, the author strays from her stated goal of biographing too often to maintain a captivating storyline.

consumed a philadelphia cheesesteak in beirut. actually, amman was the ancient site of roman philadelphia. get with the program, arab sandwich vendors.roasted chestnuts over an open fire.should have expected..

wheelies being popped. recycling programs.

hmm what are those bullet hole-shaped holes in that building

yum calamari, just gimme a sec while i thrash your dinner against some rocks

"my favorite being the hindus who refuse to eat beef even though they're starving."

"during droughts and famines, farmers are severely tempted to kill or sell their livestock. those who succumb to this temptation will be unable to plow their fields."

"more calories go up in useless heat and smoke during a single day of traffic jams in the united states than is wasted by all the cows of india during an entire year."

"the divine prohibition against pork constituted a sound ecological strategy."

"by placing a premium upon maximizing the number of combat-ready adult males, warfare obliges primitive societies to limit their nurturance of females."

"the yanomami term for marriage translates as 'dragging something away' and divorce as 'throwing something away'."

"the yanomami have two words for hunger - one that denotes an empty stomach, while the other that denotes a full stomach that craves meat."

"the christian gospels fail to expound or even mention jesus' relationship to the jewish liberation struggle."

"the principal result of the witch hunt system was that the poor come to believe that they were being victimized by witches and devils instead of princes and popes...the witch mania was an integral part of the defense of that institutional structure."